MP SPEAKS | Right to hire, no right to fire a prime minister

MP SPEAKS | Just before the Supply Bill (Budget) 2021 was passed for second reading, I wrote on the confidence convention and, as anticipated, the confidence debacle has not waned away but continues to linger, if not intensified.

So far, an event of loss of supply has not occurred yet. Twenty-six ministries have seen their budgets passed and just one more ministry to go before the third reading of the Bill is put to the vote today.

Against this backdrop, there are 25 motions of no-confidence and two confidence motions (members’ motions) tabled by MPs from the government and opposition; all of which have not seen the light of day despite the motions being regular in accordance with the Dewan Rakyat’s standing order.

Given that the motions list appearing in the 'Aturan Urusan Mesyuarat' (Rule of Meeting Affairs) will be invariably long, ordinary members’ motions will not find time to be moved especially since the standing orders and convention dictates that government business takes precedence.

Unsurprisingly, the government seems unperturbed by the number of no-confidence motions tabled against the prime minister. After all, the series of victories in budget votes by ministry enjoyed by the government suggests that the prime minister and his cabinet command the confidence of the majority...